‘Ello folks,
I know it’s been a while since I last did my ‘On the Box’ feature,but having looked through the listings for this week I thought I’d better resurrect it.The listings are thick with war films and documentaries etc to keep us entertained while we’re lounging around on the sofa trying to cope with the Christmas turkey,endless mince pies,and/or the obligatory hangovers.
This post only covers terrestrial UK channels,so I’m afraid all you overseas folks won’t find it much use!Ok,here goes…
The World At War,BBC2,all week,two episodes starting at 9.55am: This is the entire award winning 1970’s series.The first two instalments were on this morning.
Sunday 22nd Dec,6:50pm,Ch4,”Dogfight:The Red Baron”:This is an hour long documentary about the career and demise of the famous WW1 ace.
Tuesday,Christmas Eve,5.55pm,Ch4 “Shakleton”:This a repeat of the Kenneth Branagh drama about Shackleton’s ill fated expedition to the South Pole.I know it’s not exactly aviation related,but it’s good stuff all the same.Second part follows on Christmas Day at5.50pm.Try and catch it if you didn’t see it the first time.
Christmas Day:
ITV,3.10pm “Thunderball”:This is the James Bond film with the sunken Vulcan bomber in it.Worth watching even if only for the first Vulcan-filled half hour.
Ch5,7.25pm “Heroes of WW2-Britain’s War Heroes:Douglas Bader”:This is a documentary about the famous legless RAF fighter pilot,part of CH5’s Heroes of WW2 Night,which continues with…
8.00pm “Gladiators of WW2:British Armoured Division”:A docu about the unit better known as the Desert Rats.Then…
9.00pm “The First of the Few”:This is the 1942 movie of the design and development of the Spitfire,starring David Niven and Leslie Howard
and ofcourse a large number of serving RAF pilots.If all this isn’t too much for you…
11.20pm “Operation Daybreak”:This is a movie dramatisation of the assasination of Rienhard Heydrich,a ruthless leading SS officer and architect of the ‘Final Solution’.
Reserve the remote for Christmas Day night!
Boxing Day:
Ch4,5.30pm “The Battle of Hood and Bismarck-The Mighty Hood”: This is a repeat of a docu shown earlier this year about HMS Hood,the RN BattleCruiser destroyed by the Bismarck in May 1941,and the 2001 expedition to try and find the wreck.This is followed by…
7.30 “The Battle of Hood and Bismarck-Sink the Bismarck!”:This is the same story from the Bismarck’s point of view,including new underwater footage of the Bismarck wreck.
11.35,BBC1 “AirplaneII-The Sequel”:Self explanitory surely!(“Stop calling me Shirley!”)
Friday,December 27th:
ITV,1.05pm “The Great Escape-The Untold Story”:This is a repeat of an exellent docu about the famous prison breakout in 1944.This builds up to…
ITV,1.50pm “The Great Escpae”:Yes,it’s the classic 1963 movie,with Steve McQueen doing his best to ruin a perfectly good motorbike. Compulsory viewing.If you do not vatch it,you vill be placed in zee cooler for twenty days…
Ch4,4.15 “Dad’s Army”:On a lighter note,you could watch the Dad’s Army feature film,but I think I’ll stick with Great Escape…
Well,that seems to be just about it,but I’m bound to have missed summat,so please feel free to add anything else you can think of!
Happy viewing folks!
By: Ant.H - 23rd December 2002 at 23:48
RE: New Year’s resolution early
Not to worry Moggy,I think I could probably have written it more clearly looking at it again,I can see how you could miss it.
By: Moggy C - 23rd December 2002 at 23:11
RE: New Year’s resolution early
>Hi Moggy,
>The Red Baron docu is mentioned in the second paragraph of
>my initial post
I will stop skim reading, I will stop skim reading, I will stop skim reading, I will stop skim reading, I will stop skim reading.
Moggy
Sorry
By: Ant.H - 23rd December 2002 at 19:48
RE: On the Box Christmas Special!!
Hi Moggy,
The Red Baron docu is mentioned in the second paragraph of my initial post,but glad you caught the programme anyway! 🙂
I thought the CGI stuff was pretty lame aswell,but with no red Triplane airworthy in Europe at the moment,I s’pose they had no choice in some scenes.I thought they could’ve mentioned the Sopwith Triplane,this was afterall the machine which inspired the Germans to order a Triplane of thier own in the first place,but hay ho.Nice to see plenty of footage of some of Shuttleworth’s finest,particularly the LVG :).Anyone know if the RAFM will still be wanting her back shortly??
I’ve seen the Camel repro somewhere before aswell,does anyone know who owns it?Is it UK-based or one from the Old Rhinebeck collection?
By: Moggy C - 23rd December 2002 at 09:08
RE: On the Box Christmas Special!!
Ant,
You missed out last night’s Red Baron documentary.
Quite good stuff, but some really lame CGI ‘flying’ that added nothing.
For those who missed it the conclusion was that it was an Australian machine gunner on a ridge off to the right of the chase that scored the lucky hit
One bullet through the chest killed him in about 20-30 seconds. Just enough time for the Baron to land his aircraft and mutter a word or two <“Ouch! That smarts”??> to a British squaddie before he died.
Moggy
By: Wombat - 23rd December 2002 at 06:21
RE: On the Box Christmas Special!!
Ant
Thanks for the sympathies, old son.
Actually, Christmas Day is predicted to only be 23 degrees, cloudy, with some rain. Still sink a few cans, but the beach can look after itself, I think.
As for the cricket, all I can say is, England are definitely NOT the worst team going around at present. Sri Lanka deserves that title. They are the third team in the tri-nations one day series out here at present, and England have flogged them both times they have met.
Australia’s openers scored more runs that the whole Sri Lankan team in their first match together last night.
Enjoy your night snuggled up in front of the telly, mate – I’ll still have to put up with the old groaner and the other dud crap they put on this time of the year!
Regards
Wombat
By: Ant.H - 22nd December 2002 at 14:51
RE: On the Box Christmas Special!!
Comiserations Wombat,you have my sympathies.Still,I suppose as a consolation you can go out and have a barbie and a couple of tinnies on the beach,as opposed to being stuck indoors sheltering from the weather!We need good telly here in the UK to keep us sane over Christmas.If you really wanted to cheer yourself up in front of the telly,you could always stick on a video of the recent Ashes test…
By: Bluebird Mike - 22nd December 2002 at 14:02
RE: On the Box Christmas Special!!
Thanks for the hard work there Ant. You know, I’d never managed to see any of ‘The World At War’ before, until I saw the one this morning which covered the Blitz/Battle Of Britain period; and on that strength alone, I shall be forking out the eighty quid or so after Crimbo to buy all 32 hours of it on DVD!
By: Wombat - 22nd December 2002 at 01:33
RE: On the Box Christmas Special!!
You lucky bugger!
All we have out here is repeats of Bing bloody Crosby and
White Christmas, Carols by Candlelight, and endless other boring Christmas “specials” and rejects from the US.
Definitely a dead zone around here at this time of the year.
Regards
Wombat
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December 21, 2002 at 7:49 pm